


Riding Into Danger

by juggieheadcoopers



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: F/M, Tumblr Ask Box Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-14
Updated: 2017-05-14
Packaged: 2018-10-31 14:09:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,243
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10900971
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/juggieheadcoopers/pseuds/juggieheadcoopers
Summary: Summary: Betty has been busy searching for her long lost brother while Jughead has spent most of his time trying to find his footing in his new role as a Serpent. When Betty and Kevin take a road trip to visit said brother, things get dangerous when a mysterious man is seen following them through a dive bar.





	Riding Into Danger

**Author's Note:**

> It's a one shot for now, but if you want more let me know ;)

“Betty? Where are you, what’s wrong?” 

Jughead could tell something was off the second he heard the odd tone in her voice - uncertain, a little high pitched, on the verge of panic. The last time he remembered her sounding like this, they were in the middle of uncovering the murder of Jason Blossom and, for reasons that warranted zero explanation, this did not sit well with him.

“I don’t know, Kevin and I were on our way to meet with my brother and-” Betty scrambled to explain their situation, her words coming out rushed and slurred from the the overload of adrenaline surging through her body.

“Wait what?” Jughead cut her off, his fingers clenching tighter around the cellphone as he tried to fathom the idea of Betty actually meeting the brother she didn’t even know she had until a few months before. “Since when?” 

“You’ve been busy, Jug, we haven’t really had time to dish it out and spill our latest gossip these past few weeks,” Betty pointed out, the ancient payphone she was using crackling in protest at the unexpected movement that came with her gesticulating hands. 

“I know, and I’m sorry for that but I’ve only been a Serpent for a few months, Bets,” Jughead reminded her. “I have to be around when they need me, I can’t afford to be a no-show, especially when things have been so tense around here lately.” 

“Look we can talk about this later,” Betty told him, the phone pulling away from her ear slightly as she glanced behind her shoulder at the man sitting in a far corner of the building they had stumbled into looking for help. “But right now, we’re in this dive bar in the middle of nowhere, there’s this guy that’s been following us for the past two hours, and I think Kevin is on the verge of having a panic attack-”

Jughead furrowed his brows in confusion at the rustling coming from the other end of the receiver as Kevin dove forward to take the phone from Betty’s grasp.

“This place is worse than the White Worm and that fear-inducing cobra they keep as a mascot,” Kevin spat, his voice rising an octave higher with each syllable that came out of his mouth. “I swear there are rats the size of Shetland ponies crawling on this disease infested floor, get us the hell out of here!”

Betty snatched the phone away from Kevin, glaring at him from her spot in the phone booth before turning her back to him completely.

“What are you guys doing in a dive bar anyway?” Jughead asked, his brows knitting together as he pushed away the half-eaten basket of fries sitting on the counter in front of him. 

“It’s a long story,” Betty sighed. “But basically Kevin forgot to fill up the tank before we left and we got stranded on some back road with no cell service where we spent most of the day pushing his Dad’s truck through the desert.” 

“Okay, and the guy who’s following you?” Jughead wondered, his senses beginning to prickle with worry. “What’s the story there?”

“He followed us into the bar and hasn’t stopped watching us since,” Betty explained, her eyes wandering subtly to the man in question, but then quickly darting back to stare at the silver buttons on the payphone. “Part of me felt like he looked familiar, but I don’t think I would be able to place where I knew him from.”

“Betty, tell me where you are so I can come meet you,” Jughead told her, hopping off the stool and reaching for his leather jacket sitting on the seat next to him. 

“Uh, hold on let me get an address.” There was a moment of silence in which Betty ran from the phone booth to ask the surly bartender the name of the strange place that they had stumbled into, and a second later she was back, breathing heavily into the phone as she tried to slow her heart rate. 

“We’re in this little town just past Greendale and the bar we’re at is on 609 West Carm-” Before she could finish, the phone started producing an ear-splitting screeching noise, cutting in and out and making it almost impossible for Jughead to understand her. 

“Betty?” Jughead yelled into the phone, holding it away from his ear slightly as the screeching increased in volume. 

“Jug-? an - you- ear- me?” 

“Betty, you’re breaking up I can’t-” Jughead tried to tell her, but the before he could get the words out, the screeching stopped and the phone cut out all together.

“Damnit,” he cursed, shoving his phone in the back pocket of his jeans and sliding his arms through his jacket sleeves. 

“Somethin’ up, Jug?” One of the head members of the gang, Viper, asked as he emerged from one of pool rooms located at the back of the Serpents’ hangout, the White Worm, coming around Jughead to clap a firm hand on his shoulder.

“It’s my girlfriend,” Jughead explained, his brow furrowing in concern as he glanced up to meet Viper’s gaze. “I think she might be in trouble.”

“Did you get an address?” Viper wondered, stepping to the side of Jughead to lean against the counter, one massive elbow propped up on the surface as his other hand gestured for the barman to make him his usual drink. “Maybe we can be of service.” 

“Half of one,” Jughead admitted, glancing up at Viper to watch him take his beer in his hands, tossing back a big swig before setting it down on the counter with a satisfied clunk. “She says they’re in some dive bar in a small town just past Greendale.”

“The Helix in Portersville,” he said without hesitation, signaling for the rest of his crew to meet him at the back door with a simple signaling of his right hand. “I know it well. Let’s ride.” 

“Viper, are you sure? What about-”

“You’re family Jughead,” Viper reminded him. “That means your girl is family too. And we always help our kind out of trouble. Let’s go.” Jughead gave him a grateful nod and Viper handed him the key to the motorcycle waiting for him in the parking lot.

As they made their way out of the bar, Jughead ran a hand through his thick head of dark hair and adjusted the leather jacket on his shoulders. Swinging one leg over the bike and settling back into the seat, Jughead couldn’t help smile to himself as he started the engine and heard the motor roar to life. This feeling, riding down the open road with the wind through his beanie-less hair and a crew full of family members backing him up, made him feel powerful. It made him feel in control. And he had to admit, it felt pretty damn good.

–

“I swear I just felt something run across my foot, Betty,” Kevin squealed, scooting his chair back from the table and glancing down at the dirt and grime-coated floor. “It had toes and creepy little claws - oh god its tail just brushed my leg! We have to get out of here now.”

“I know and we will,” Betty promised, tossing her dead cellphone from one hand to the other without glancing up to witness Kevin pulling his feet up onto the chair with a look of complete and utter fear on his face. “As soon as our tow truck gets here.” 

“Or Jughead,” Kevin pointed out, his voice much calmer now that his feet were off the ground and safe from any creatures roaming the bar’s floor. “You know he’s going to bring the Serpents here to come to our rescue right? You have to admit it’s kind of sexy thinking about him in that leather jacket, riding down the road on his motorcycle-”

“Kev,” Betty warned, raising an eyebrow at Kevin as she reached forward to place a reassuring hand on his jacket sleeve. “We don’t need rescuing okay? Everything’s under control.” 

“Nice night for a drink, isn’t it?”

Both teenagers froze as a deep voice coming from behind them sent a chill down their spines, causing them to turn to each other with panicked eyes as the figure took a step closer to them.

“Either Jughead broke an insane amount of traffic laws getting down here or our stalker is standing right behind us,” Kevin whispered, closing his eyes tightly and clenching his teeth as Betty turned around to find the man who had been following them for the better part of the day standing a few feet from their table, his tall and broad stature looming over them in a dauntingly wicked manner.

Without wasting another second, Betty swiped the steak knife sitting on the table and pushed back from her chair, rushing forward to pin the man against the wall in one swift motion. “Why are you following us?”

“Holy shit, it’s Betty the Stalker Slayer,” Kevin muttered under his breath, pushing back from his own chair to stand behind them in fascinated horror. “I kind of love it.”

“You’re much feistier than you look, young lady,” the man admitted, lightly pushing the knife away from his throat and smiling smugly down at her. “You’re the girlfriend of one of the Southside Serpents aren’t you?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Betty mumbled, her eyes boring into his as she kept one hand firmly on his chest and the other gripping the knife just in case she needed to use it at moment’s notice. 

“Oh I think you do,” he whispered. “And I have a message that I’d like you to deliver to one of them.”

“We don’t have a pen and paper, sorry, try using the mail service like every other-” Kevin tried to pull Betty back so they could make a break for the door, but the man reached past her to pull Kevin by the collar of his shirt, cutting off anything else he was going to say with a strangled gasp. 

“Shut up, kid,” he warned, giving him a threatening look before pushing him backwards so that he stumbled into a table.

“Shutting up,” Kevin muttered, grasping at his throat as he attempted to smooth the crumpled fabric that the man had ruined with his giant fist. 

“A message for who?” Betty asked, her voice low and steady as she used every bit of strength she had left to keep this man pinned to the wall while still remaining calm. 

“FP Jones,” he confessed, causing Betty’s heart to stop beating for a moment as she tried to process what he was saying. “He has something of mine that I’d like back.”

“And what is that?”

“I don’t think that’s any of your business little girl,” he hissed, his thick eyebrows knitting together in anger as he met her gaze with a menacing glare. 

“Anything to do with the Jones’ is my business,” she said through gritted teeth, flinging him harder against the wall and bringing the knife back up to his throat. 

"I know who you are,” the man breathed, his expression softening the slightest bit as realization took over his features. “You’re Alice Cooper’s daughter, the one who’s dating the Jones boy.”

“How do you know my mother?” Betty narrowed her eyes at this stranger, trying to remember if she had ever met him before. 

“So it’s true,” he concluded, a satisfied smile creeping up onto his lips. “Well this just got a lot more interesting.” 

“Kevin, we’re leaving,” Betty announced, pulling away from the man and grabbing her coat from the chair behind them. “Let’s go.” 

“I’m already eight steps ahead of you, get me out of this hell hole,” Kevin told her, crossing the length of the bar with long and determined strides as Betty hurried to keep up behind him. 

“Not so fast,” the man yelled, pushing the tables and chairs out of his way so he could cut off Betty’s path to the door. “If you’re not going to deliver my message for me, I guess I’ll just have to make you.”

Taking her by the arms, the man started dragging her towards the back of the establishment, lifting her in the air so that her feet dangled slightly above the ground. But before he could get anywhere, Kevin picked up an empty glass sitting on the counter and lunged towards him with it raised high above his head.

“Get off her, you buck-toothed Shrek!” Kevin demanded, crashing the glass against his skull and stumbling backwards at the impact. 

“Son of a bitch!” the man shrieked, clutching his head in pain as the bits of glass cascaded down his shoulders to litter the already-dirty floor. 

“Go, go, go!” Kevin yelled, grabbing Betty by the arm and pushing her out of the bar as they ignored the man’s protests echoing from behind them. 

“Kev, I can’t believe you did that!” Betty gasped, her heart beating a million miles a minute as they sprinted down the dark alleyway leading to nowhere. “That was awesome!”

“Being the Sheriff’s son comes with mandatory combat training starting at the age of nine,” Kevin explained, his breath coming out in raspy spurts as he tried his best to slow his breathing. “But I totally almost peed my pants back there, that was terrifying!”

They turned to each other for a brief moment of relieved laughter, when the sound of thudding feet on pavement startled them back into reality.

“Shit, he’s following us!” 

“And he brought friends!” Kevin pointed out, his neck craning to see at least a dozen surly men bounding towards them with ruthless determination and anger contorting their faces. “That’s why no one in that damn bar was stopping him, they were all a part of the gang-up-on-two-defenseless-teenagers squad! Come on, this way!”

Kevin gestured to a side street that led back to the main road, and Betty picked up her pace to sprint down the alley and away from the herd of men barreling towards them at top speed.

“Shh, Betty do you hear that?” Kevin grabbed Betty’s arm to stop her, straining his ears to hear the grumbling coming from the road they were headed for. 

“Motorcycle engines,” Betty remembered the sound from the various times the Serpents had dropped Jughead off at her high school so that he could walk her home from school. 

“Holy Hells Angels, your Serpent boyfriend really did come to rescue us!”

“We can’t stop moving, come on!” Betty shoved Kevin out of the alleyway and they started stumbling through the abandoned field that led up to the old highway just as a flood of headlights poured in from the darkness behind them.

“Betty!” Jughead called out to her just as she had climbed her way up the hill and was jogging down the side of the road, her pace slowing the slightest bit as she turned to look up at him with frightened eyes. 

“He was sent to deliver a message to your Dad,” she explained through heavy breaths. “When he found out I was your girlfriend, he totally flipped out and started chasing us. He said that your father had something of his, Jug.”

“Shit, I knew that our relationship was going to cause trouble for you,” Jughead cursed, his hand adjusting itself on the bike’s handle as he struggled to balance its weight on the road. “I thought I was going to be able to protect you but it’s just made things worse.” 

“Guys, can we have this heart to heart a little later?” Kevin shouted from behind Betty. “If you haven’t noticed, a gang of long-haired goons are chasing us and they look really angry - and I don’t meant the Serpents!”

The herd of angry men poured out of the alley just as Betty and Kevin had done only a few moments before, crawling their way up the hill at a much quicker pace than they had been keeping when they first spilled out of the dive bar.

Just then, Viper, Jughead’s mentor and close friend, pulled up from behind them. “You kids go! You take your girl Jug and the boy can ride with Emerson,” Viper insisted, gesturing to Kevin and pointed to the younger Serpent who was trailing behind the lot on a smaller and much skinnier bike. “We’ll take care of them. They’re Hiram Lodge’s crew. Their business is with us, not you two.” 

“What are you going to do?” Jughead yelled over the roar of the engines, glancing over at Viper in concern as he met his gaze with skeptical eyes. 

“That’s not your concern,” Viper reminded him. “Now go on, before you get yourselves in even more trouble!”

Viper slowed his pace to let Jughead pass him by, looping around on his motorcycle so that he was now facing the men that had been chasing Betty and Kevin.

“Hop on, Bets!” Jughead yelled, holding out his hand for her to take as they continued down the abandoned highway, the wind whipping his hair back behind him and the moonlight lighting his features in a way that made him look like a completely different person.

“What?” Betty gasped, turning slightly to eye the beast of a motorized vehicle trailing along beside her with a wave of overwhelming trepidation that caused her throat to close up in fear. 

“It’s now or never,” Jughead told her, glancing back at the war unfolding in the background before turning to meet her gaze as best he could. “Do you trust me?”

“More than anyone,” Betty said without hesitation, her pace quickening to match the increasing speed of his motorcycle. 

“Okay, then take my hand,” Jughead instructed, reaching out in her direction as he picked up even more speed. “One...”

Betty’s heart pounded hard in her chest, the thumping so loud that it almost drowned out the roar of motorcycle engines.

"Two,” Jughead called out, his arm ready and waiting for her to take as they continued down the road. 

Betty thought about chickening out and letting the men who were still fighting their way towards them despite the Serpents’ retaliations. She thought about giving up right then and there. But this was the boy she loved. This was the boy she trusted. And if she was going to do anything so daring that it could potentially end her life, she was going to do it with him.

“Three!” Without another second of hesitation, Betty sprinted forward and took Jughead’s arm by the elbow, hoisting herself up onto the leather seat and steadying herself by clamping her arms around Jughead’s shoulders as he sped down the road and away from battle that was only just beginning.

Betty didn’t know she could ever feel this safe riding on a death trap on wheels with absolutely no padding or helmets. But as her golden hair whipped behind her shoulders, her grip tightening around her boyfriend’s shoulders as they picked up even more speed rounding a corner, she realized that for the first time in her entire sixteen years on this planet, she felt dangerous. For the first time in her life she felt free. And despite every instinct screaming at her to be afraid, she couldn’t help but tilt her head back and close her eyes, letting the chilly night air prickle her smooth skin in the best ways possible. She liked this feeling. And she never wanted it to go away.


End file.
